Exclusive π⁰ production and Compton scattering at GlueX

In this work, studies of the reaction γp->π⁰p will be presented along with an exploratory study of the Compton scattering process γp->γp. These reactions were studied by utilizing the fine-grained calorimetry of the GlueX experiment in order to aid in the understanding of production mechanisms in high-energy photoproduction. The separation of π⁰ and Compton events is challenging due to potential merging of the π⁰ decay photons into a single shower for large polar angles and high momentum. This merging causes small angle π⁰ decay photons to look like Compton photon showers. As a result, electromagnetic shower shape variables are used to study these effects, and with the introduction of three new width variables, comparisons between data and Monte Carlo samples are obtained to estimate the signal purity for these two reactions. These results will provide a stepping stone to ultimately measure the Σ beam asymmetry for large angle Compton scattering events.